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Boolean ultrafilter extension
Statement
Assume the Axiom of Choice (The Axiom of Choice). Let be a Boolean algebra (Boolean algebra and Boolean ultrafilter). Then:
- every proper filter is contained in a Boolean ultrafilter;
- ultrafilters separate elements: if in , there is an ultrafilter containing exactly one of and .
The proof deliberately records the repository's AC/Zorn implementation; it does not claim that the ultrafilter lemma for Boolean algebras is weaker than AC, and no such claim is used anywhere below.
Facts & Assumptions
Given: An assumed Axiom of Choice, a Boolean algebra , and a proper filter .
Boolean algebras, proper filters and ultrafilters are as defined in Boolean algebra and Boolean ultrafilter: a proper filter contains , omits , is closed under and upward closed; an ultrafilter is a maximal proper filter.
Under the Axiom of Choice, a nonempty poset in which every chain has an upper bound has a maximal element (Zorn's lemma, The Axiom of Choice).
In a Boolean algebra the symmetric difference satisfies for , and for ; both are consequences of the complement and distributive laws. [algebra]
Proof
The poset of proper filters of containing , ordered by inclusion, is nonempty because . Every nonempty chain in has an upper bound: the union is a filter (it contains ; it omits since in the union would put in some ; it is closed under because two elements lie in a common by directedness of a chain, and it is upward closed because each is), and contains .
By [L2], applied under the standing Axiom of Choice, has a maximal element , a proper filter containing that is maximal among proper filters, hence an ultrafilter by [L1]; this proves claim 1.
If is an ultrafilter and , the filter generated by cannot be proper, by maximality in [L1]. Hence some satisfies : otherwise the family of elements above some would be a proper filter strictly containing . Thus , so by upward closure. Conversely and cannot both lie in a proper filter because their meet is . Therefore exactly one of , holds.
For the symmetric difference has by [L3], so the principal filter is proper (); by [step 1.2] it is contained in an ultrafilter , which therefore contains .
If then , while , since would give and then ; symmetrically, if then by [step 1.3] and the same computation with the roles exchanged gives . Hence contains exactly one of , proving claim 2.
Remarks
- Zorn is applied to filters, not to chains in the algebra. The upper bound of a chain is its union, and properness of the union is exactly the point where the filter axioms are used.
- Separation is what makes injective in the representation theorem Stone representation for Boolean algebras.
Depends on
Used by
Dependency tree · two levels
10 results within two dependency steps of this one, each drawn at its shortest distance from it. An arrow runs from a result to what uses it, so the chart reads left to right and ends at this result, which carries a heavier outline. Every node is a link to that result. Click elsewhere on the chart to enlarge it.
Sources
- Marcus Tressl, Stone Duality for Boolean Algebras — Proposition 2.2.10 and Corollary 2.2.11, pp. 7–8 (standard reference, not scraped)